Quick links

Is complacency the reason behind Arsenal’s poor form?

Arsene Wenger admits that the Arsenal players thought they would be in the top four again this season.

With Manchester United radically going off the boil and Tottenham Hotspur failing to capitalise on their early season promise, Arsenal were pretty much guaranteed a top-four finish in the Premier League.

Or so the players thought, according to manager Arsene Wenger, who has admitted for the first time that his team have been guilty of complacency this season.

It is a damning admission and raises a lot of questions about the mentality of the Arsenal players, who at one stage of the season were striving for the title and are now hoping – not expecting - to finish fourth.

Having not won any major silverware since 2005, Arsenal appear to have lowered the bar of expectations. Moreover, having featured in the Champions League for 16 years in a row, perhaps they thought that they have a divine right to be in Europe’s premier club competition each and every season.

Complacency intertwined with modest ambition is now threatening to force Arsenal out of the top four. Last season the players celebrated finishing fourth as if they had won the league title, this time they might do the same if they pip Everton to the prized spot. That is what a club that once won the championship without losing a single match has been reduced to.

Recently an Arsenal team comprising of Mesut Ozil, Cazorla and Jack Wilshere were very much in the race for the Premier League title; now, they are behind an Everton side whose two key players are not even theirs (Gareth Barry and Romelu Lukaku are on loan). This is a wake-up call for everyone at Arsenal.

Subhankar Mondal

A football journalist based in Wakefield, Subhankar Mondal has previously worked for Goal.com International and Skysports.com, and has had his sports articles published in The Guardian and The Observer. He has also been on the BBC in the past and his name once found its way to the pages of the World Soccer magazine. He was recently cited in a major Louis van Gaal biography.